Ethics Code Awareness, Perceived Ethical Values, and Organizational Commitment

By S. Valentine, Tim Barnett. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 2003

224 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study examines the relationships among ethics code awareness, perceived corporate ethical values, and organizational commitment. Three key findings emerged. First, those aware of the existence of an ethics code in their organizations perceived their organizations as having more ethical values than those not aware of an ethics code in their organizations. Second, respondents exhibited higher levels of organizational commitment when they were aware of an ethics code in their companies. Finally, the relationship between ethics code awareness and organizational commitment was fully mediated by perceptions of an organization’s ethical values. The results suggest that ethics codes may lead to higher levels of organizational commitment by increasing the belief that their organizations have strong ethical values, as long as the existence of ethics codes are adequately communicated.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Information Systems and Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/006969870e11edb258fa1f07ec7391f943898ee6

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Information Systems and Management

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

The Role of Ethical Climate on Salesperson’s Role Stress, Job Attitudes, Turnover Intention, and Job Performance (2006, methodology): “Single-item measures have been widely used in the marketing literature to assess frequency of behaviors and to ask factual questions (e.g., Andrews et al. 2004; Valentine and Barnett 2003).”
A Multilevel Model Examining the Relationships Between Workplace Spirituality, Ethical Climate and Outcomes: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective (2019, background): “Research shows that the employees develop a positive perception of the workplace when there are clear standards that assist them in determining what is ethical or unethical (Trevino et al. 2001; Valentine and Barnett 2003).”
The Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Organizational Commitment, and Job Satisfaction on Ethical Behavior of Chinese Employees (2013, background): “Valentine and Barnett (2003) in a survey of 373 US sales professionals found that individuals who are aware of the existence of an ethics code in their organization exhibited higher levels of affective organizational commitment than those who were not aware of the existence of an ethics code in…”
The Effects of Explicit and Implicit Ethics Institutionalization on Employee Life Satisfaction and Happiness: The Mediating Effects of Employee Experiences in Work Life and Moderating Effects of Work–Family Life Conflict (2018, background): “Research has shown that organizational commitment is influenced by work environment (e.g., Westerman and Simmons 2007), person– organizational fit (e.g., Valentine et al. 2002), and corporate ethical values (e.g., Valentine and Barnett 2003; Valentine and Fleischman 2008).”